Ricardo De Leon Lopez Jr., 33, is in custody in Bexar County on charges of aggravated sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping after an employee accused him of assaulting her at their workplace, according to News 4 San Antonio. The business is in the 500 block of West Hildebrand Avenue.
The woman told police that Lopez was her employer. She told officers that he restrained her in a side room not open to the public on Sept. 30 and assaulted her there again on Oct. 1.
The woman also told police that Lopez threatened to fire her or other employees if they spoke with law enforcement, News 4 San Antonio reported. These are allegations described in police and court records, not findings of guilt.
What the law and workplace data can—and cannot—show
Texas law defines “restrain” as restricting someone’s movements without consent in a way that substantially interferes with their liberty, by moving or confining them, according to the Texas Legislature. That definition provides legal context for the reported allegation of restraint; by itself, it does not establish what happened or whether the charges can be proven.
National workplace research offers context on harassment reporting, but does not establish anything about this case. A 2016 U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission report summarized 55 independent probability samples totaling 86,578 respondents; 58% of women reported experiencing sex-based harassment when answering the survey. Separately, an EEOC data highlight says the agency received 27,291 charges alleging sexual harassment from fiscal years 2018 through 2021. Those filings are allegations, not findings that harassment occurred, and the agency’s count is not a measure of incidents in this San Antonio workplace.
The EEOC data highlight also cites a study in which 90% of people who said they had experienced harassment did not take formal action, such as filing a charge or complaint. That broader finding is not evidence about the employee’s experience or the alleged threat in this case.
